Besides that, they maintain the doctrine of equivocation, which is a lie, a justifier of lies, which is worst of all.
* That is, in the pope as claiming to be successor of Peter. — G.
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And to murder : this present day and occasion tells us that murders come from them. Their doctrine maintains it ; and they make orations in commendations of traitors, as Sixtus Quintus did in praise of him that killed Henry the Third, king of France, and the' bloody massacre of France is pictured up in the pope's court (c). As the devil is a liar and a mur- derer, so is this son of the devil, who is led by the spirit of the dragon; in disposition they are alike.
In course of life they are alike. The dragon is said to draw the third part of the stars of heaven down to the earth ; that is, to draw men which were as the stars of heaven, to make them deny their religion. So this dragon, this pope, the instrument and vassal of Satan, he draws the third part of the stars from heaven, and he draws men from the love of the truth by preferment and honour. Men that are learned, men that are otherwise of excellent parts, he draws them from heaven to earth ; that is, he draws them from the knowledge of the truth and goodness to earth, and lower than earth too if they do not repent, even to hell itself, from whence he came. Thus I might go on to shew that this beast is Rome under the pontificality, and not Rome under the heathen emperors ; likewise that this beast is acted, led, and guided by the spirit of the dragon, by reason of the resemblance which it holds parallel with him in these and other things. So much for explication of this beast.
But why is the state of Rome called the beast ?
Daniel first knew the great empires : the one of Babylon, called a lion ; the Persian monarchy, a bear ; the Grecian, a leopard ; but here in this chapter is a strange beast, that hath all the cruelty and fierceness of all those monarchies, called therefore a beast for her fierceness and cruelty.
God's church, they are sheep and lambs. Christ himself the Lamb of God ; the opposite church of antichrist, a beast, a cruel beast. If you go to plants, God's church are lilies ; the opposite kingdom are thorns. If you go to fowls, God's church are doves, turtles, mild and gentle ; the opposite church are eagles and birds of prey.
But I say they are called beasts for their cruelty. The state of Rome under those heathenish emperors was a beast; and in those ten persecu- tions the emperors are rightly called beasts. So likewise Rome papal is a beast. Our religion, true religion entertained, makes of beasts men ; the true knowledge of Christ alters their natures, turns lions into lambs, as the prophet saith, Isa. xi. 6. But the popish religion, it makes of men beasts, makes them worse than themselves. For these gunpowder traitors, many of them, as they were by birth gentlemen, so their dispositions were gentle and mild, divers of them, not of the worst dispositions, only that bloody religion made them worse than their nature was. So I say papal Rome is a beast, and popish religion makes men beasts.
Well, I will not enlarge myself in the uses of this point, because I shall speak of it afterward, if the time will give me leave, only this, have nothing to do with this beast, keep out of her paws, keep out of her claws. A lion, or a cruel beast, may seem to be calm for a while, but a lion will, as we say, shew a lion's trick once a year. Meddle not, therefore, with this beast. It is a beast. So much for that, what the beast is, the state of Rome under the bishop of Rome.
' For God hath put into their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree to give up their kingdoms to the beast.'
Whose ? The angel sets down in the verse before, ' the ten horns, the ten kings, the ten western kings.' Whether it be a certain number for an
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nncertain, or whether it be a certain number, I will not dispute of now, but take it so as it cannot be disputed against, a certain number for an uncertain. A number of the western kings gave up their kingdoms for a while to the beast, until the word of God should be fulfilled.
But mark the phrase, * God put it into their hearts to give up their kingdoms to the beast.' Will God put it into their hearts to give up their kingdoms to the beast ? Why, then, the pope of Rome need not pretend Constantine's donation,* that he three hundred years after Christ gave unto them many territories about Rome ; but they may depend upon a higher donation, ' God put it into the hearts of the kings to give up their kingdoms to the beasts.' Here is a higher title than the donation of Constantine.
But we must know that this is not meant, as if God gave him a right by putting into the hearts of the kings to give up their kingdoms to the beast, but God seeing these ten horns, these ten kings to be in a sinful estate, who deserved to be left of him, and to be given np to further illu- sion, and by withdrawing his grace to give them up to the occasions of sin, 60 this seducing beast and whore, he put into their hearts to give up their kingdoms to the beast.